London School of Economics releases report indicating creative industries do not gain from excessive copyright protection

The Department of Media and Communications at the UK’s prestigious London School of Economics has just released a policy brief, entitled Copyright & Creation: A Case for Promoting Inclusive Online Sharing, which suggests that policy-makers and large media concerns are gaining little from their efforts to enforce draconian and restrictive copyright laws. Online piracy, in fact, could bring more benefit than harm to the creative sector. We have seen this just recently when HBO’s Game of Thrones became one of the most pirated shows of all time with HBO hardly in a bind about its good fortune and the company touted the fact.

There is historical precedent for the fact that creators do not benefit from overly extended terms of copyright or heavy handed prosecution of such claims – See this video from Learn Liberty on Giuseppe Verdi’s ability to make a handsome profit from his music without the benefit of any copyright protection.